Case studies › Healthcare

Case study

15% cost reduction across 120 healthcare locations

A PE-backed network of medical centres, clinics and day hospitals. A full sourcing event, judged on price and on everything else, reduced costs by 15% in 16 weeks without changing supplier.

  • Healthcare
  • Australia
  • PE-backed
  • 120 locations
  • Strategic sourcing
  • 2025
Healthcare network · 120 sites · 2025p. 2 of 14

Three of eight bids would have raised total cost. The right awards saved 15%.

IncumbentNew supplierSaving a year, $k+800+4000-400-8000255075100Awarded to incumbentsWhole project: 15% below baseline, about $2MABCDEFGHNon-price score out of 100Cost reductionCost increase
Initial bids on one part of the project, before negotiation. Non-price score: fulfilment, consolidation across sites, ESG, financial risk. Redrawn and anonymised from the engagement.

The numbers

Below baseline spend
15%
Saved in year one, delivered to the P&L and signed off by the CFO and the board
~$2M
Start to finish
16 wks
Locations in scope
120
The situation

5,000 SKUs, and nobody could see what each site paid.

A private equity-backed network of medical centres, clinics and day hospitals: 120 locations across Australia.

Together they bought more than 5,000 SKUs of medical consumables, drugs and vaccines.

The spend had never been reviewed across the portfolio companies. Nobody could see clearly what was being bought, from whom, or what each site was paying for the same items.

Starting point
  • 120 locations across Australia
  • 5,000+ SKUs of consumables, drugs and vaccines
  • Spend never reviewed across the portfolio companies
  • Brief: rationalise the range, consolidate the supply base, reduce overall cost
What we did

A full sourcing event, judged on price and on everything else.

  1. 01

    Brought the spend and pricing into one view across every portfolio company and site

  2. 02

    Evaluated eight suppliers, a mix of incumbents and new entrants

  3. 03

    Scored every bid on two measures: the saving against current spend, and non-price performance out of 100

    Fulfilment · consolidation across sites · ESG · financial risk

  4. 04

    Showed that the lowest unit prices didn't always mean a lower bill: three of the eight bids would have raised total cost, one by close to $1M

  5. 05

    Ran focused negotiations on the strongest bids

Where the savings landed

The incumbent suppliers won the work, 15% below baseline spend.

  • About $2M in the first year
  • Delivered to the P&L and signed off by the CFO and the board
  • Prices fixed for 12 months, with a one-year extension under a price escalation clause

The saving is protected, not eroded by the next price rise.

What stayed behind

Everything we built, left with the business.

  • The spend baseline
  • The evaluation model
  • The sourcing documents
  • The negotiation materials

The next sourcing project starts by refreshing these, not from scratch.

The next step

Want the detail behind the numbers?

Tell us your situation and we'll walk you through the engagements most like yours: the starting point, who had to move, and where the savings landed.

Tell us about your situation